Burn in - a myth?

And surprisingly omitted the importance of a good mains supply and the all important fact of having the right room dimensions right at the start is paramount. Also proper system setup and warming up after switch on should not be forgotten.

Yes cables need a few hundred hours on them after new before they show a noticeable improvement

Absolutely. It’s the same with tasting food, you don’t need other people (or a certificate) to tell you what tastes good and what doesn’t.

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So those suggesting that it’s a myth don’t really exist?

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I’ve experienced burn-in, warm-up on many occasions with my systems over the years, others haven’t.

And it’s very easy to spot food that’s burnt in.

.sjb

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Nice analogy!

I’ve always found cartridges sound better after half a side or so. :thinking:

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Now here is an assertion on the lookout for some evidence…

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Software does not need to burn in. Really some people!

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If only dogs could talk…

New cable, upgrade amp? “Here, Pugsy…good dog…”

Easy peasy. They’ll do anything for a biscuit.

The mood argument is silly to me. I have listened to my hifi in a bad mood and it’s uplifted me because it sounded so damn good. Right now my kit is sitting perfectly in much better presentation. Cables, rack, symmetrical basically it looks really nice but yet it doesn’t sound as good as my previous setup. Even when I’m in the best of moods I am not enjoying it.

Also people who believe hifi electronics burn in will often accept it’s possible that it’s psychological. But people who haven’t experienced and don t believe it never accept that perhaps we don’t have the tools to measure the sensitivity of the changes or that exhaustive tests obviously haven’t been conducted considering the lack of importance of this hobby in the bigger picture.

And please don’t argue Floyd Toole at Harman research. This guy said there isn’t an audible difference between a silver cable and a copper one. He also said that blind testing is the best way to listen (test) when it absolutely isn’t. Our senses work better in tandem. Blind testing has its own bias and confusion. Oh and the worst part is his tests are conducted with a single speaker so mono audio. Just think about that.

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This would be a great way to do it, to be sure the changes in sound you’re actually hearing are burn in of the item & not your brain. I do the same 5-10mins of listening at a time & then burning in while not listening/in the same room, if your listening for longer periods of time your brain is adapting as well.

Another thing that people need to do before they swap out cables & are making a comparison, make sure you first unplug/plug in the old cable a few times & listen. Lots of the time the old cables will have spent months or years without being unplugged/plugged, the act of doing this with the new cables will help clean the contacts, which that in itself can improve sound.

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There is the possibility that some set ups are simply better optimised and portray subtle changes more clearly than others. There are lots of threads about systems being too bright, too little/too much bass, no soundstage etc. and we are generally aware that compromised speaker placement, noisy mains, system configuration, listening position, waxy ears/hearing loss etc. all affect macro detail perception, let alone micro details.

If I couldn’t hear something that so many others claim to, I might be inclined to consider something other than all those people being wrong.

I clean all the contacts every year, a bit less . It indeed improves a bit the sound, which is more relaxed.

True, but most studios are businesses operating with very tight margins so don’t have the option of spending lots on cabling etc. The private studios of multimillionaires are not in the same situation though, as this interview shows:
TapeOp_March05.pdf (davidgilmour.com)

Cryogenically frozen cabling, cabling directionality observed, cable burn-in, oak cones, torlyte stands, ‘technical’ earth cabling, silver solder… it reads like a bingo call of all the things normally decried as snake oil. But this is a professional studio, not a hifi hobbyist so it’s not accurate to say ‘studios don’t do it, therefore it must be nonsense’.

Mark

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12-bore?

I wish it was a myth … but my exprience tells me otherwise…big changes. Buying cables is particularly problamatic … I always try to buy dealer ex dems it helps allot. Anyway thats all I have to say - believe what you want but at the end of the day enjoy your music…over and out good sir.

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Multi-millionnaires seem often to spend money simply because they can, buying what is described or perceived to be the best or that which is exclusive by its extremely expensive nature, simply because they can, and to those that do because to them that very exclusiveness is what they feel their wealth entitles them to. Whilst that might mean they buy better sound quality, it is by no means clear that they are buying with their ears. (Though it of course may be that some do)

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Hi-Fi Bore. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:
After half a side that would be one Barrel. :rofl:

True, but if you read the article you’ll see that’s not the case in that example. The people working in the studio say they’ve done extensive listening tests and deliberately chosen what sounded better to them. Having a multimillionaire signing the cheques simply allowed them to buy what they thought best, regardless of price.

I doubt Dave Gilmour gets any sort of kudos or street cred for spending money on this sort of thing - in fact, a number of hifi buffs would probably stop listening to his records on point of principle if they thought he’d been doing so, since it conflicted with their opinions!

Mark